On Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, Egypt’s Interior Ministry announced that it had arrested all six journalists of Matsadaash, an investigative publication that the state accused of colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood. The state claimed that Matsadaash published disinformation and that it was funded by foreign sources. Matsadaash denied those claims to no avail, and the whereabouts of the six detained journalists are currently unknown. The outlet frequently fact-checked the state, so their detainment is not a matter of opinion, but a direct suppression of factual reality. This capture of dissenting journalists is only one in a series of anti-democratic actions by the Egyptian government since the coup in 2013.

Since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rise to power in Egypt in 2013, he has rapidly progressed the state towards authoritarianism. Elections — at least those regarding el-Sisi’s hold on power — are neither free, with state limitations on criticism and voter intimidation, nor fair. After the passage of the Judicial Bodies Law, el-Sisi maintains total control over the judiciary in the country as well. Egypt also currently imprisons the fourth-most journalists out of any country in the world — a major violation of a basic principle of democracy.

A key aspect of democratic society is the freedom of the press. According to Robert Dahl’s Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, people in a democracy should have the opportunity to formulate political preferences, express them to fellow citizens, and have those preferences weighted equally in government proceedings (2). To ensure access to those opportunities, Dahl asserts that freedom of expression and alternative sources of information are crucial (3). He defines “alternative sources” as sources not subject to government control. Without these alternative sources, citizens are unable to formulate their own preferences, free of government influence. Citizens should be able to access fair, unbiased information to inform political decisions, and by arresting journalists — especially those who run an independent outlet with no connection to the state — Egypt threatens that right, and with it, risks sliding further towards total authoritarian rule.

Dahl’s framework is reliant on another principle: the press must be a system that keeps the incumbent in check. The press not only informs citizens who engage in democratic processes, but also allows them to “reward and punish incumbent behavior,” according to Ozan Varol’s “Stealth Authoritarianism” (1694). Varol explains that independent media outlets serve as “public watchdogs” by encouraging transparency from the government. He adds that an “informational asymmetry” between government and populace favors the ruling party, reducing the checks and balances on its power (1693-94). Varol’s theory supports Dahl’s claim that the press is absolutely crucial to the checks and balances of a democracy, and reinforces that Egypt’s attack on independent journalists is a threat to the remaining strands of democracy in Egyptian politics.

However, Varol notes that outright oppression of press freedom can be damaging to a country’s image. He focuses on the tactical use of libel lawsuits, mentioning that blatant oppression can “galvanize activists against the government, strengthen their resolve, and allow them to leverage the repression to obtain domestic and global resonance for their movement” (1695). Indeed, Egypt’s overt act of repression against independent journalists has drawn calls from international human rights and journalist protection organizations for their release. Therefore, el-Sisi’s imprisonment of journalists underscores the government’s disregard for global legitimacy. While a more “stealthy” authoritarian government may use libel lawsuits and other quasi-legal means to limit press freedom, a state that has progressed toward outright authoritarianism, like Egypt, may prefer less agreeable methods. Though el-Sisi has already stripped Egypt of most of its democratic features, his willingness to commit further obvious violations of the principles of democracy is worrying for the future of the Egyptian state as it descends from electoral autocracy to complete authoritarian rule.

Targeting fact-checkers and independent observers is the final indication of a country’s decline from any feasible conception of democracy into total authoritarianism. When a government suppresses the truth, democratic participation — and democracy itself — becomes impossible.